Dreams Or Reality
by MyrrhDarkwing
Summary: A girl named Aly has a weird dream- is she really in Destiny Islands, or is it just, well, a dream? My attempt at a sucked-into-the-game fic that doesn't completely suck. I hope.


The dream argument was really such a fascinating thing, Aly mused to herself as she sprawled on the couch, watching her older brother play some sort of game on his PlayStation. Locke claimed that one could always tell the difference between dreams and reality, through touch, taste, and smell. He claimed dreams had no substance to them, so those three senses would fail.

Descartes, however, said that it was impossible to distinguish between reality and dreams, as all five senses would work in either environment. He theorized that everyone on this world one thought one knew could just be an illusion, some big virtual reality or dream. Aly was fascinated by his theories, for, really, how could one tell?

What was the difference between reality and dreams?

Her reverie was interrupted by her brother punching the air with one fist, letting out a whoop. "Aly, you see that? I finally beat Demyx! Finally!"

"Good for you, Darien," Aly congratulated him, brushing black hair back from her eyes. He had been trying to beat Demyx for a few hours now, with no notable success. Ever since Mother had bought him Kingdom Hearts II, Darien had been obsessed with it. Aly had to admit, she liked several of the characters, but she never had cared much for video games. She'd read some fanfictions and sporkings involving the characters, and watched Darien play, but never really cared.

It made him happy, though, so that was good.

"Kids, it's after midnight! Why are you two still up?" Their mother stood in the doorway, glaring at them. "Bed. Now."

"But, Mom-" Darien started.

"But, Mom, nothing. Get to bed."

Aly obediently pulled herself up off the couch, padding down the hall to her room. She could hear Darien arguing with their mother bad in the den, and shook her head. Mother always got her way- when would Day learn?

She had just finished brushing her teeth and pulling on the next day's clothes- a simple T-shirt and jeans- when her mother called down the hall to her again.

"Antoinette, I mean it! Get to bed!"

"Good night, Mother," Aly sighed, flipping off her light and slipping into bed.

She woke up what seemed like only a few minutes later, but, according to her clock, was actually around three in the morning. Sitting up in her bed, she wondered why she was awake so early… and why something felt so off right then. Aly looked around cautiously, but there was no one in her room. There was, however, a dark, almost incorporeal, door in one corner that had definitely not been there when she had fallen asleep.

Knowing that it was probably a bad idea to do this, but being too curious to do otherwise, Aly got out of her bed and padded over to the door, reaching out to touch it. To her shock, her hand went right through its surface, sinking deep into the misty shadows it was composed of. It never occurred to her to worry, or to call for help.

Instead, she stepped into the darkness.

She was fairly certain her eyes were still open, but she could see nothing. What felt like a cold mist surrounded her, wrapping itself around her slender body, but there were no sounds, and the world was so, _so _dark. She turned, and turned, and turned, spinning in a circle, but she couldn't see her bedroom, or anything except the ineffable darkness. So she chose a direction at random and began walking- it never occurred to her to remain where she was.

Aly didn't know how long she had been walking. Two minutes? Two hours? Two years? Time had no meaning in this incorporeal world. Until she saw something, what looked like a faint… light? Could it be an exit? Aly didn't know, but she walked toward it anyway, not knowing how to return to her home.

It _was_ light, of some sort, anyway, a sort of writhing, shapeless light that was almost a tear in the fabric of this dark world. Filled with her normal insatiable curiosity, Aly reached out for it. Once again, her hand disappeared inside; once again, the rest of her followed it.

The shadows disappeared abruptly, and Aly fell out onto sand, landing with a thud. She picked herself up, squinting in the sudden brightness as she surveyed her surroundings. It was… a beach? How had she gotten to a beach?

"Hey, Kairi, Riku, come see what I found!"

Aly whirled around to face the source of the voice and found a boy just standing there. He had brown, spiky hair and looked to be somewhere around her age. He looked familiar, too, as well he should, for hadn't Aly just spent the past three hours watching her brother control him?

He- Sora- was frowning at her just now, probably confused about just what she was doing on the beach and how she had gotten there. Come to think of it, so was she.

While they stared at each other, two more teenagers ran up, a slender redhead and a silver-haired boy; Kairi and Riku. Three characters from a video game, standing there and looking at her. _It had to be a dream, right?_

Riku was the first to speak, breaking the silence. "Where did she come from, Sora?"

Sora shrugged. "I don't know, okay? I just found her standing here."

"Why don't you try asking her, guys? Where did you come from?" That was Kairi.

Aly looked down, thinking of how best to reply. The truth, because it _was only a dream, right? Dreams couldn't hurt you._ "I'm Antoinette- Aly- and I haven't a clue how I got here."

Kairi smiled at her. "I'm Kairi, these are Sora and Riku." She seemed a lot nicer than she was usually portrayed in the stories Aly had read.

"How do you not know how you got here?" Riku asked, still watching her with an air of distrust. She didn't blame him- if a strange girl ended up at her house with no idea how she'd gotten there, Aly would react the same way.

"I just… don't, okay?" Aly said.

Riku turned away from her, looking over at Sora and Kairi. "I don't believe her. She knows something, and she's not telling."

Kairi sighed. "Come on, Riku, give her a chance… I didn't know how I'd gotten here either, and you accepted me."

Riku shook his head. "No." He turned back to Aly. "Where did you come from? Who brought you here?"

"You wouldn't believe me even if I told you, okay?" Even if she had ever expected to find herself in a fictional world, Aly had never thought the characters would be so suspicious of her. Though it was normal, since it was her mind creating the dream, her mind projecting the characters, and she was a naturally suspicious person. There. It was rationalized in her mind, and now for an experiment. How would she/they react if she/they learned she/they did not exist?

"Tell us, and let us judge for ourselves." Riku again. His eyes were hard- he meant what he said, and at this moment Aly didn't particularly mind telling him.

"Everything I've said has been true- I _don't _have any idea as to how I appeared on this beach-" _except that this is all a dream, and I'm still only in my mind-_ "just that I came from another world." 

"Another world?" Sora frowned. "You don't look much like anyone I've met."

"My world calls itself Earth."

Kairi shook her head this time, slightly confused. "We've never heard of such a world. Though I suppose there could be worlds none of us had heard of, but wouldn't the King know?"

"He would. She must be lying," Riku stated.

"I'm not lying. Please, just listen, hear me out. My world calls itself Earth, and we have a thing called technology on Earth. This technology allows us to create virtual worlds, video games if you will, and manipulate them."

"Get to the point."

How best to phrase this? No, don't worry about phrasing, Aly decided. She might as well be blunt, because she had to convince these three she really didn't know how she had gotten here. "A game called Kingdom Hearts is popular in my world-" The three were frowning now, they'd all heard that name before. "- and you three are characters in it."

An eruption of sound. "What-" "Huh?" "-does this-" "Are you-" "-mean?" "-lying?" "- insane?"

"It means you do not actually exist, any of you, except as an animated program stored on a disk in my world."

Sora shook his head, a lock of brown hair falling down over his face. "No, no, no, you're lying! We're real! You're talking to us, you're seeing us, we're just as real as you are!"

"How do we know you are real, then, if you say we aren't?" Kairi was looking confused, but also still frowning at Aly. "How do we know you aren't lying?"

"And," Riku finished, adding in his own argument, "We're obviously real. We think, we move, we talk, we act independently. You do all the same, yet you claim to be real and call us programs?" He was the one taking it best, Aly thought, but he might have already decided she was lying anyway, so…

Fascinating. The three of them had such different reactions, from absolute denial to the famous _I think, therefore I am_ theory. Aly searched her knowledge of this game to see if she could come up with an example that might convince them. "Sora- Roxas, rather- do you remember anything about that computer Twilight Town?" A slow nod from the brunet. "Did you think it was real? Did you have real friends, real thoughts, real actions?" Another nod. "And do you think all the same things about this world?" Again, the nod, and a look of panic in Sora's eyes. "Then how do you know that this world is any more real than the simulated Twilight Town you were trapped in?"

It was Kairi who came up with an answer first. "You don't."

Sora wasn't far behind her, but his outlook was completely different. "Because this is reality! It can't be just a computer simulation, it just can't be! I won't believe it!"

Aly nodded. "And did Roxas think that about Twilight Town?"

"… Yes… but that isn't the same at all! This is _our_ reality, our life, the world we've saved twice so far! How can you say it isn't real?"

Riku had remained silent so far, but now he spoke. "How could you say the Twilight Town wasn't real?"

"Exactly!" Aly exclaimed, clapping her hands lightly, but Riku's next words cut her off.

"Just because I may have refuted your argument doesn't mean I believe you. In fact, I don't believe you, and think it would be for the best if you just left. Right now would be a great time for that, actually."

Kairi was still thinking about Aly's words, at least Aly thought she was, but now she looked up. "Riku! You can't just tell her to leave! How is she going to be able to leave, anyway?"

"The same way she got here." Riku's tone was final as he walked over to Sora, who seemed to be having some sort of internal debate with his selves.

Kairi's eyes were pleading with Riku, but he paid her no attention. He didn't _want_ the strange girl here on his island, in his world, making him question everything he'd ever thought to be real. She was obviously a liar, and a crazy one, at that, but he wouldn't attack. She wasn't _hostile, _exactly, just… He didn't like her.

"Do you have _any_ way of leaving?" Kairi asked, remembering their own ill-fated raft of years before. Sora and Riku were walking away, now, and she didn't want to be left behind- but then again, neither did she want to abandon a strange girl here. "Any way at all?"

Aly shook her head, then sighed. "No. Your friends are leaving, Kairi. I'll be fine-" _I think, it's just a dream after all- _"So go with them. Bye, Kairi."

With a last glance at the strange girl who had appeared on their island, Kairi hurried after her friends. Sora was trying to suppress tears, and Riku was definitely… angry? She believed the girl- Aly- hadn't meant any harm, but it was kind of impossible not to hurt people when you said their world was a lie. They could forget about this in time, perhaps, but… what if it wasn't real? No… it had to be, didn't it?

"Kairi!" Riku called her, and she snapped out of her thoughts and caught up to them. The trio walked off together, already trying to forget the crazy- The trio walked off together, already trying to forget the crazy words of the girl.

Aly watched them go, having mentally taken notes on their interactions. It seemed her subconscious reacted in different ways to being told it did not exist, though… what if this wasn't a dream? No, of course it was a dream. She sat down where she was, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them as she waited for the dream to end. She would wake up soon, in her own bed, in her own world, and perhaps never be able to look at her brother's video games the same way again.

So lost in her thoughts was she that Aly did not notice the darkness seeping up from the ground, coalescing into shapes that would have been very familiar if only she had seen them. As it was, she did not until it was too late, when the Heartless, sensing new prey, had taken form and approached her.

She stood quickly once she did notice, but the darkness was surrounding her legs, slowing her as she tried to run. Then the Shadows were spreading up her body, a ripping, tearing sensation as they clawed and bit at her, and her hands just went through them when she tried to push them away.

Descartes was right, she decided, one part of her brain already detached from the chaos below. You _could_ feel pain in a dream. It was only a dream, though, and no one had ever died from just a dream…

Those were Aly's last thoughts as the darkness engulfed her. Her head went under, and she saw no more.

The writhing mass of Shadows subsided, sinking back into the ground and leaving only two figures behind.

A small white Dusk and a smaller black Shadow blinked once at each other, then disappeared into their separate portals.


End file.
